molossian
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A breed of large dog of classical antiquity native to Epirus, resembling a mastiff and used as a hunting dog and guard dog.
adj
Of or relating to Molossia or Molossians.
Example Sentences
- "But meanwhile a new grating was opened, and into the arena rushed, with mad speed and barking, whole packs of dogs,—gigantic, yellow Molossians from the Peloponnesus, pied dogs from the Pyrenees, and wolf-like hounds from Hibernia, purposely famished; their sides were lank, and their eyes bloodshot."
- "The hounds were Indian, Cretan or Locrian; there were also Molossians (mastiffs) and Spartans (big greyhounds)."
- "One constituent spent an hour educating me on the history of pit bulls: the Molossians, the Mastiffs; the Greeks, Romans, Brits, Tibetans, and Germans; the crossbreeds. A common theme ran throughout their history: they were the fiercest of fighters, and eventually bred to fight—in wars during antiquity, in dog fights for centuries. Regardless, they were again and again attacking other dogs and people."
- "He loved dogs, indulged by Antius’ kennel composed of Neapolitan mastiffs and molossians, original Roman war dogs."
Etymology
From Molossia + -n.